A conventional prior art magnetic card reader 100, as shown in FIG. 1, typically includes a magnetic reading mechanism 102 that comprises at least one magnetic reading head 103. The magnetic card reader 100 normally includes a slotted portion 104 for inserting a magnetically readable card 106. As is well known in the art, the magnetically readable card 106 typically includes a magnetic stripe 110 which is located about an edge of the magnetically readable card 106. The magnetic stripe 110 includes at least one track 111 where information is magnetically encoded using an encoding technique that is well known in the art. As shown in FIG. 1, the magnetic stripe 110 includes three tracks of information. Correspondingly, the magnetic reading mechanism 102 includes three magnetic reading heads labeled R1, R2, and R/W3 for reading, respectively, track 1, track 2, and track 3 of the magnetically readable card 106. Additionally, the third magnetic reading head labeled R/W3 is a read/write track and comprises, in this example of prior art, a magnetic writing mechanism for writing information to track 3 of the magnetically readable card 106 in a conventional way. As is well known, a user inserts the magnetically readable card, or card, 106 in the slotted portion 104 and slides, in a direction indicated by arrow 108, the card 106 through the slotted portion 104. This swiping mechanism moves the magnetic stripe 110 of the card 106 across the magnetic reading head 103 such that the at least one track 111 of information encoded in the magnetic stripe 110 can be detected by the magnetic reading head 103 and read by the magnetic card reader 100.
The magnetic card reader 100, after reading the encoded information from the magnetic stripe 110, then typically forwards the information to another device. In the prior art example shown in FIG. 1, the magnetic card reader 100 is coupled to a central system 112, such as via a dial up telephone line 114, a dedicated line, or a computer network. In this example, the magnetic card reader 100 communicates with the central system 112 over the dial up telephone line 114, e.g., using the public switch telephone network (PSTN) by way of modem communication. The information read from the magnetic stripe 110 is then forwarded from the magnetic card reader 100 to the central system 112. The central system 112 typically comprises at least one database of information to analyze the received information from the magnetic card reader 100. The central system 112 then communicates a conclusion to the magnetic card reader 100 which, in this example, can alert the user whether the transaction with the holder of the card 106 is authorized by the central system 112.
The construction of the card 106 and of the conventional magnetic card reader 100, the techniques for magnetic encoding of information, and the format of information content for the card 106 are well known and are specified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), such as in ANSI standard X4.16-1983, and the more recent international standard for identification cards provided in ANSI/ISO/IEC-7811 Parts 1-5.
Although magnetically readable cards 106, i.e., magnetic stripe cards, are well accepted by users, and magnetic card readers 100 are part of a large infrastructure that is a mature and stable technology, there are a number of problems with the current use of magnetically readable cards 106 and conventional magnetic card readers 100.
First, cards 106 tend to wear out and become unreliable after repeated use. For example, the magnetic material of the magnetic stripe 110 is subject to physical damage from external hazards, degradation of its magnetic qualities over time, and it can be affected by external magnetic fields. Second, cards 106 can be easily duplicated which facilitates fraudulent use. For example, an unauthorized user can easily duplicate the information stored on the magnetic stripe 110 from a first card 106 that may have been obtained from a legal authorized user, and copy the information to a second blank card 106. The unauthorized user could then utilize the second duplicate card to engage in fraudulent transactions. Third, the card 106 typically contains a fixed amount of prerecorded magnetic information on the magnetic stripe 110. This fixed information normally corresponds to a single issuer of a card 106. In this way, users tend to carry many different cards 106 to be able to engage in transactions with different issuers of the cards 106. This tends to be cumbersome and inconvenient for a user to have to carry many different cards on their person. Fourth, the magnetic stripe 110 is of a fixed predetermined length and can store only a maximum number of bits of information, such as is specified by the ANSI standards. The amount of information that can be stored in the magnetic stripe 110, therefore, is constrained by the physical dimension of the magnetic stripe 110 and the conventional magnetic recording technique used to store the magnetically encoded information on the magnetic stripe 110. Fifth, due to the aforementioned problems with magnetic stripe card technology, there is a trend to migrate to smartcard technology. Smartcard technology typically utilizes a card with a built in controller and a group of electronic contacts arranged in a predetermined pattern on the surface of the smartcard to enable an external device, i.e., a smartcard reader, to communicate with the controller contained on the smartcard. This smartcard technology is different from the magnetic stripe card technology such that a conventional magnetic stripe card is normally not supported by a smartcard reader and a smartcard is, likewise, not supported by the vast existing stable infrastructure of the magnetic stripe card readers, i.e., conventional magnetic card readers 100. Therefore, in migrating to the more recent smartcard technology, the vast and stable magnetic stripe card reader infrastructure will become obsolete and will have to be replaced by the more recent smartcard reader and associated infrastructure. This change in card reader and infrastructure technology will be very costly to implement and probably not available at all locations right away. Therefore, those individuals carrying smartcards for some time would not have commonly available establishments with smartcard readers, thereby inconveniencing smartcard users during this transition in technology.
Thus, what is needed is a magnetically communicative card that overcomes the problems of known magnetically readable cards.